Over the years, I have probably spent about 900 hours learning history in school, doing history homework, and studying for history tests. That is almost 40 days, over 10% of a year! I have never enjoyed history as a subject. Furthermore, I always have difficulty pinpointing the possible benefit of studying history. Perhaps this is the case because History class has often required mostly memorization, and I therefore conclude that we don't learn anything significant. But I suspect that I have a more rational reason for disliking History.
I see practical significance in almost all of my other classes. Mathematics is useful for many fields and basic arithmetic is essential to succeed in life. English is useful, because it teaches how to draw significance from literature, as well as how to convey ideas in writing. Health teaches how to live a healthy life. Computer Literacy teaches some basic useful skills for using technology. Classes in the fields of Art, Chemistry, Biology, and Drama may not be very useful for individuals interested in other fields, but they are not required beyond one year. They are meant to introduce students to the subjects. Further classes are available for them to follow up on these interests.
History, on the other hand, is mandatory for 4 years at Uni, as well as throughout most elementary and middle schools. thinking back, however, I struggle to remember anything useful that I have ever learned in history. Given that I don't plan on becoming a historian, these lessons have to be applicable to other parts of my life. The only significant activity that I remember doing in any history class was the research paper. I cannot deny that the ability to research and concisely summarize finding is very useful. Why, though can we not just have a research paper class for one semester, instead of spending year after year memorizing facts that students are bound to forget almost immediately?
Now that I question all of this, why do we even have historians? What have they ever done to improve the world, besides waste future generations' time teaching more and more useless history? Perhaps documenting failures can help us learn from our mistakes. Perhaps if our government had studied historical failures of wars, they wouldn't have decided to invade Iraq or Afghanistan. But if nobody actually learns from history, what is the point?
I understand that some people enjoy history and I am by no means intending to bash your interests. It is not for me to decide whether studying, researching, and documenting history should be a valid profession. If students enjoy the rote memorization of history class, they should be free to take elective history courses. But forcing every child brought up in the US to waste a significant portion of their lives studying history is completely unfair.
I feel like the reason why we take history classes is because one is obligated to know of their past, Why the world is what the world is today. I understand your frustrations of history, often times I see it as nothing more than trivia which is part of my enjoyment (for me at least) for learning history.
ReplyDeleteI think that at least some knowledge in History is extremely important for any educated person to thrive in the Modern World. We can learn much from our past, and it is pertinent in many areas of our lives, although it might not be easy to see this. History also lets us appreciate that challenges faced by our ancestors, and learn important information about the way the country we live works.
ReplyDeleteThough I like history, I know exactly where you're coming from. There's plenty of classes for which I don't really see a point in taking. I believe we should take courses based what we want to be when we're adults. In Europe, they have a science program, an arts program, and an economics program. If you can't pick, you can do multiple programs. But for you, you know you like math and science. So you could choose the science program. I like history a lot, and feel like it helps us find broader trends in society. But, I do not feel that every single person needs history classes.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I will agree with you that history is not my favorite subject, I have to say I think there are some incredibly important reasons to study history. In a way I almost think history and science are a little bit related, because both are part of this curiosity to understand what people are, why are we here, how we got here, how we are part of such a big world. While scientists might study the earth itself or the astronomy or physics of the big bang to figure out how we came into existence, you have to argue that historians do something similar by studying early humans, uncovering old cities, and investigating religions or cultures of people who knew this world when it was very different from how it is now. Also, it may not be so obvious now that people are learning from their mistakes, but we don’t know how bad or repetitive things may have been if no one had been taught a history lesson. Humans don’t live forever and passing down stories through generations isn’t the most accurate method, especially with people like yourself who may not find it necessary to listen to those stories. I think it would have taken a lot longer for modern science and medicine to emerge if no one had recorded and studied the scientists who came before them, if everyone had to start from scratch. Everything has a history to it and has evolved over time, and whether or not you want to keep studying it, I think it’s important to appreciate it a little. I agree that maybe if you’re set on becoming a computer programmer or an astronaut, studying the Stamp Act of 1765 might not make sense. Maybe history should be an elective, but I think it’s a little ignorant to question why we have people who study it.
ReplyDeleteOk well I supposed you sort of convinced me that History may have some practical uses. Their importance may not be as apparent as engineers, lawyers, doctors, etc. Nonetheless, throughout history (lol) they may have aided science, politics, medicine etc. A classic example would be Renaissance scientists unearthing ancient roman scientific works. Archaelogists and individuals who study artifacts and ancient books and whatnot can be exceptionally useful. But in the modern day, there are few ancient discoveries that we are not already aware about. Of course, keeping records of historical occurrences is great to document our past. These fields of history (archaeology and record-keeping) are undoubtedly useful. I, however take issue more with the Historians who spend all their time analyzing. While some analysis is ok, I feel like a disproportionate amount goes on compared to the actual possible benefit of all of this. Once again, however, I won't pretend like I am an expert. I am surely not the first to question history, and somebody somewhere must have had some good reasons to keep doing it. You brought up some good points, though and I can't really refute any of them.
DeleteMaybe I can help, since I'm actually kind of your opposite: I'm extremely interested in history, but don't see much purpose in my learning abstract math that I'll never use in daily life. If I were to ask you why I should learn math (not why we need math in our society; obviously we need engineers and computer scientists and all that jazz), you would probably say something like "math is useful for everyone because it teaches you to think logically and solve problems." Well, history is pretty much the same. If done well, it teaches people to look critically at their assumptions about the way the world works and try to understand the issues inherent in how we think about things. Obviously it also teaches names and dates, which are important for some people (lawyers, politicians, businesspeople -- anyone who has to make decisions to potentially shape the real world, basically), but it also teaches how to critically organize those facts into something meaningful and develop a way of thinking about the world. To be educated you have to know how to think in several different ways, since no one approach can correctly solve any of lives most complicated problems. So that's my long-winded answer: people need to learn history because it teaches a different way of thinking about the world, the same way math, science, and English do, and that helps people solve problems and make decisions no matter what they end up doing with their lives.
ReplyDeleteIn the previous comment, Berit illustrated to me some of the benefits of professional historians. I suppose this post essentially covers the other half of my argument. You brought up good points, and your comparison to math helped me (math is more my kind of thing). So now I basically agree that, when done right, history can teach us students some important critical thinking skills. Learning to organize info and whatnot is definitely a great skill to have in many academic professions. Yet, the facts and stuff still seem rather superfluous to somebody like me who has no interest in fields involving history. I would still prefer specific classes for the skills learned from history: research papers, primary source analysis, interpreting source credibility, among other things. Perhaps a better way to accommodate everyone's interests, while still teach high schoolers these important skills would be to have mandatory classes covering the skills and perhaps a mandatory overview class to give everyone a general idea of world history, and then whoever is interested can pursue more in-depth factual material in elective classes.
DeleteI've never enjoyed history as a subject either. It seems dull to me and it's the class where I always zone out. I understand that the learning certain lessons from the past may be important but it seems like most of what we learning have no significance. In fact, most of what we learn in high school won't play much of a role in our future careers. In a perfect world students would know what they wanted to be at an early age and would be able to focus on related subjects.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that history's been very interesting at Uni, and that the patterns of history that we've been learning about do have a lot of significance and potential use in the modern world, but I can see why you might not like it. I do agree that it's sort of unfortunate that so much of our time is spent learning things that we'll probably never really use. I do think it's sort of necessary to have this as an experience though, because you wouldn't really be able to know what you wanted to do and just focus on that without actually trying out a lot of things first. There are some subjects that I don't really like and don't think are a great use of time, but at least I've been able to try them and find out that I didn't like them.
DeleteI actually disagree with you here, I think it's really practical to study history. I agree with Will that learning about the patterns of history are very important, because we don't want to have a repeat of a problem that's happened in the past. I also think it's important for us to understand the struggles our ancestors went through and to appreciate them.
ReplyDeleteI have heard you tell me this argument before, and I can't say that I actually agree with it. However, I understand that you are much more interested in sciences and math which have more direct applications than history, so your dislike of history compared to these subjects is understandable.
ReplyDeleteI think that knowledge of history motivates decisions, both societal and personal. History clearly motivates government policy and investment, for example, but it also helps individual interests. The world can be messy, and history lets people understand the future--when there is an epidemic, an invasion, or a disaster, people need to know how it will affect them personally. With a good understanding of the past, people may develop the ability to better take care of themselves.
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